Project $ 3 K Is Underway

I hope this liner I am getting from Speedway is the one that has the lip on either side to keep it in place, sort of fits over each leaf and snaps into position. I have had that type over the years and I like it better than the one that is simply a flat piece of teflon. I'll let you know when it comes.

I understand about the clothes shrinking. When I belonged to the car club it seemed most of our cruise or meeting spots ended up with food involved. Not sure what excuse I can use now, though. :3dSMILE:


Don

Thanks

I'd appreciate the info.

Mike

Looks like you and I are the only people awake at 5 AM, huh? Now that I've had my snack it's back to bed. :D :D

Don

Yeah

Had to work the night shift for someone.

It's abouit time to go home.

Mike

Don your using to much hot water to wash the clothes, I had the same problem. it had to be the hot water makes them shrink.
Brad

It must be a universal thing my clothes are shrinking too:eek: more now that I retired.:confused:

I've started drinking some of that SlimFast stuff. You know, it isn't half bad with a bunch of chocolate chip cookies and a bag of potato chips. But I think their claims are overrated, I haven't lost one pound on it. :confused: :confused: :rolleyes:


Well, I got my housework and laundry out of the way, and it is cooling off for the day, so it's time to go do some grinding.


Don

Hot Rods and Laundry, Look out hip hop a new fads on the wing!!!

Don.

You have to break the choclate chip cookies in half.
It lets the calories leak out!:o

Don the same with the potato chips, you only eat the broken ones they have no calories................lol
Brad

Haha, the directions on the can should have SAID that. :p :p


But I did work off some calories at the shop today. Just got in, and spent the entire day at the sandblast cabinet and the bench grinder, cleaning up all of the front end parts that are going to get painted. I think this is all of them, and maybe as early as tomorrow PM. when all the people leave the park, I can wheel some of these outside and shoot a coat of primer on them.

I have decided to go a slightly different direction on the front brakes and spindles. Originally, I had pirated the complete '40 Ford/ Buick brake drum setups off the front of my '27 and was intending on using them. But I have rethought doing that, because I keep stripping more and more from the '27, and pretty soon it will be too hard to ever put it back together. So these are going back on the '27, and I am going to use the '40 Ford brakes Dan had on his '29, before he switched to the Wilson Welding brakes and Buick drums.

I inherited them (by quickly moving them to my part of the shop :cool: ) so I might as well use them. They have been totally rebuilt, drums turned, and the spindles bushed already, so it is dumb to just have them sitting there. I did blast off all the paint we had put on a couple years ago, and will start from bare metal when I paint them. The drums only need sanded and reshot in black, so they are almost ready to go.

All of this puts me in a pretty good position to get this front end painted and hung pretty quick, hopefully by next Sunday PM the frame and all the front end will be in color. I ordered some stuff from Speedway today, some chrome shackles, poly spring liner, steering arms, and a new moon style tank. The one I have been using for mockup has fallen a few times, so it has some dents and scratches. I'll use it for that rat rod, down the road.:rolleyes:

In the meantime, here is a picture of all the pieces I cleaned up today. Kind of looks like those break apart part things you get inside a model car package, huh? :3dSMILE:


Don

It's a little past 4 AM, and I just got in from pulling an all-nighter at the shop. I went in about 9:30 and decided to stay until I had the last piece of the suspension sandblasted......the rear axle and Model A rear spring. I wanted to do it at night for a couple of reasons. First of all, the park in totally empty, and secondly it is really cool out. I was going to be wearing my sandblasting suit and hood for several hours, and even as cool as it was, I still sweated a lot in that getup.

But the good news is..........I'm DONE sandblasting big stuff. Now the entire front end is ready for primer, and so is the rear end. I can concentrate on wheeling the stuff outside over the next few days and putting some primer on it all.

I bought 200 lbs of sand, and thought that was overkill, but I not only used the 200, but had to scoop up about another 50 lbs from the pile I had created, and recycle it. :eek: I would have never thought it would take that much, but even the rear spring took almost 100 lbs to do. It also took me about an hour to sweep up all that sand and erase all traces of what I had done tonight.

Here are some pictures of the parts I did tonight. I am one wornout puppy, and plan to sleep in til about noon tomorrow. But I can sleep pretty well, knowing this hurdle is over. :) :)

Don

Looks good Don, Sleep late you deserve it for working so late.
Brad

Just a quick suggestion on the sandblast to ease the clean up. Get some 6 mil (visqueen) plastic sheet and form an open ended "booth". You'll still have some from bounce back that's behind you to sweep up, but a majority will stay in the "booth" and instead of sweeping you just keep rolling it into a pile to pick up from the plastic. Also keeps it cleaner for "recycling".

Don,
I nominate you for the most dedicated Hot Rodder this week. :)
Ken

Did anyone get the license plate number of that truck that ran over me? :eek: Man, when I was younger, I would come home from a date at 5 AM, take a shower, and go to work. Funny how things change. :D

Thanks guys. You know, Bob, as I was sweeping up an area approximately 40 x 40 feet, I had some thoughts that maybe some containment device like you mentioned might be a great idea. That's exactly what I will build the next time, and we will be doing it again on Dons T bucket project in the near future. Your open-ended booth sounds great.

I even tried the gas powered leaf blower my Son has stored at the shop, and it wouldn't move the several inch thick pile of sand. Finally had to break out a big pushbroom, and even with that it was slow going. But I knew if I didn't get it all cleaned up I would catch it from the landlord for doing something like this out there, so I had no choice. Live and learn.

I plan on building a rack today to hold some of the parts while I prime them, maybe tonight. I can't get my gantry outside because of all the moving stuff my Son has stored in the front of the shop, and normally would have hung parts from that. We used it when we painted Dans stuff and it was perfect. I'll just build something quick out of 2 x 4's, I guess.

At least the rear axle assembly looks better than the before pictures below. :) That part of it feels great, knowing I don't have to lug it to a sandblaster now.

Don

Don are you going to leave those big c-clamps to hold the spring, when its done...........lol
Brad

No, they look really funny there. Gonna use much smaller C clamps. :D :D :D


I think that might be a sign a car is nearing completion.......you drag out less C clamps and vise grips.


Don

You know Don, you might be on to something there. How about a do-it-yourself rat rod kit. No welding required. Just c-clamp and vise grip it together. You could change it around every week and keep everyone guessing.:rolleyes:

Mike

Yes, but you would have to use only very old, rusty C clamps. Patina is so important, you know. :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

All joking aside, I bet all of us have gone for a short test ride with either C clamps or baling wire holding stuff in place. I know I have sat on a box a few times and worked the throttle with a long coat hanger. :D :D


Don

Yeah, you could call it a Beverly Hillbilly Hot Rod kit (clamp-it..............get it?:HMMM: )

And if you use rusty clamps it becomes a REAL hot rod!!:3dSMILE:

Oh............and don't forget the rusty Craftsman 5/8" combination wrench pitman arm upgrade.

You mean I'm supposed to remove the baling wire??!!:LOL:

Bob

I went for the 1" end wrench since I wanted it to be extra heavy duty.:LOL:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hotrod46

Bob

I went for the 1" end wrench since I wanted it to be extra heavy duty.:LOL:

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You Sir, are a true Craftsman. (oh oh, now I'm starting to do it. Darned you Bob.) :3dSMILE: :3dSMILE:

Don

I remember a nite that Doug and I went for a ride in his 56 ford, with 312 v8, just to test out the car, he was sitting on a kitchen chair and I was on a milk crate holding my leggs up to keep from falling thru the floor..............What a sight that was...........LOL**) :LOL: :LOL: :whacked:
Brad

I remember a nite that Doug and I went for a ride in his 56 ford, with 312 v8, just to test out the car, he was sitting on a kitchen chair and I was on a milk crate holding my leggs up to keep from falling thru the floor..............What a sight that was...........LOL:LOL: :LOL: :whacked:

Many years ago I built a bugeye Austin Healy Sprite , and swapped in a 289 Ford with some Cobra goodies on it. Got it running, and towed it to an abandoned stretch of highway for some test runs. Had not put the flip front end back on the car, so everything up front was exposed, had not put the windshield back on, and the bucket seats were not even bolted down.

I fired it up, a buddy of mine climbed into the other loose bucket seat, and I did a smokey pass. My friend says to me "hey, I'm watching the secondaries on the Holley carb, and they didn't open, you were running on a two barrel !" So next run, I get it moving and he leans over the dash (no windshield installed) and pushes the secondaries open with his fingers.

It was like an afterburner had kicked in, and he fell backwards from the force and semi lodged in the rear trunk compartment. :eek: :eek: Found out I had installed the spacer plate under the carb upside down, and no vacuum was getting to the secondaries.

Right after that, we at least bolted the seats back down. :D :D I'd like to say it was because I was young and dumb, but sometimes I still do stupid things like that in the excitement to get a car running for the first time. :o

Don

Now that's funny!!!!:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :CRY:

That comes under the heading of:

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Something like that usually follows a statement like this: "Hey, guys! Watch this!" :LOL:

One time ,I decided that I could drive my truck project thru town to a body and paint shop.
No bumpers,no headlights,no turn signals,no brake lights,no grill,no windows,no mirrors,it was completely striped for paint,no seats.
Well to make a long story short,I mount up the milk crate,my buddie is 6 foot 2 ,so he sits directly on the floor,have to have a comrade when performing acts of foolishness:LOL: needless to say the state police found nothing they liked when he pulled me over.He did have a pretty big smile on his face,he said he never saw a partial truck on the road before:LOL:
Lets see here ,I think it was like ticket numbers11072,11073,11074,11075,11076,11077,11078:LOL:
Which is real nice when the judge looks down and theres consecutive ticket numbers,his comment was ,they must have finished off the ticket book on this one:CRY:
The officer made sure he wrote down ,non existent ,instead of non functioning equiptment:LOL:
Believe it or not the judge reduced it all down to basically fix-it tickets.
Once I told him the story of 50 bucks for tow across town was the deciding factor for me to drive it,he fined me double that and said to have it towed next time ,its alot cheaper than me. :CRY: :LOL:

Money saved by driving to the paint shop: $50.00

Cost of fines: $100.00

Having that story to tell: Price less

:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

Yeah, Duane is right, you couldn't buy a story like that. Well, you sort of DID buy it, but it could have cost a whole lot more. :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:


Today was more parts getting primered day. I put a 2 x 4 over a couple of ladders, and hung as many front end parts as I could on it. Got them all primered, but had to switch to a different can mid way though. Not sure what happened, I mixed the primer just like always, but half way through it started to gel in the gun. I had to hurry up and clean it all out with laquer thinner, and by that time even the extra primer I had waiting in a cup was starting to gel.

Luckily, Don had some epoxy primer he had bought for his engine, so I borrowed some of it. That batch sprayed well, but is a slightly different color, as it is a different part number. I really don't care, as I will probably be spraying more over it after I do some sanding.

Anyway, here is my "Xmas tree" of primered parts. I sure will be glad when this stage is over. It is a messy job what with all the sanding dust, etc. Tomorrow I have to do some housecleaning in the shop.........it is a disaster from all of this latest work.

Don

Don,

I know you have done so much for us already with this thread. I was wondering if you had a chance if you could put together a list of parts one would need to acquire to build a bucket. I am putting together my project but having never build one before don't know what all the parts are. The big ones are no brainers but the rest allude newbies.

Thanks,
Z

Well, there are so many different ways to build them that it is hard to do that, exactly. But, if you are talking about the traditional T bucket, such as a company like Total Performance, or Speedway puts out, there is kind of a formula to those.

Frame...........a ladder type frame, usually made from rectangular tubing, anywhere from 1.5 x 3 inches, to 2 x 4 inches. I like 2 x 3 with a 3/16 wall, but that is just a personal preference. Frame generally has a perch on the front to support a cross "buggy" type spring, to which a straight axle is attached. The spring is usually mounted behind the axle for a little more wheelbase, and this is called a "suicide" front axle assembly. The rear axle is generally a non-independant type, as used under most cars. Popular rears are Ford 8 and 9 inch, and S10 Chevy rears, among others.

The rear can be suspended by a single cross spring, like mine, or by using coilover shocks. In past years some people used regular coil springs, like Corvairs, but these have sort of fallen from favor in recent times. Both front an rear axles are generally located by wishbones , hairpin radius rods, or a fourbar setup. Of the three, hairpins seem the most common on T buckets.

The body is generally a fiberglass reproduction of a 1923-25 Ford. Some people use a shortened bed, some use a turtle deck (trunk) and some use nothing, as I am doing.

Steering is generally a reversed Corvair box, but some people use mid '50's Ford truck, or VW bus, or other boxes. The Corvair is by the most popular, and Flaming River is reproducing these brand new now (I am using one of those)

Engine choice is unlimited, but by far the most popular is the Chevy small block, like a 350. They are light, powerful, compact, and very reasonable, even in the crate from GM.

Transmission is generally an automatic, because of space limitations. I tried to use a stick shift in mine, and could not find room for the three pedals. The turbo 350 is by far the most popular, because it works well behind the popular small block Chevy engine.

The rest of the stuff is standard hot rod fare, like a custom radiator, gauges, headlights, etc. A very good source that you should have is a Speedway catalog. It is chock full of not only every part you will need, but also lots of hints and diagrams on how to do things. I keep a copy at the shop and at home.

Hope some of this helps you out. Now I have to go take a nap. :D :D :D


Don


Oh, I forgot brakes. Most T buckets use discs up front and drums in the rear. There are tons of kits on the market to install the discs, and the rear drums are generally what came with the rear axle. The pedal assembly usually goes under the floor, and residual valves are usually needed so that the fluid does not drain back into the master cylinder, since it is mounted so low. As I get into doing this on mine, I will post pictures of each step. I am not using discs, because I wanted the traditional, oldtimey look, plus, I am old fashioned and just like them better.

Don go take a nap, you worn out just reading the list.
Brad

I'm glad I took the Evelyn Wood speed typing class. :3dSMILE: :3dSMILE:

That was tough to concentrate on at about 4AM. ;) ;)

Don

You must have been on cruise control at 4am:whacked: :HMMM:
Brad

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BradC

You must have been on cruise control at 4am:whacked: :HMMM:
Brad

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Yeah Brad, I got up to get a drink of water, and saw his question, so I thought I'd try to answer it. Kind of did it half asleep, and was surprised it actually made any sense at all when I read it the next morning. :D :D


I got my Speedway order yesterday. Most of the stuff is nice, like the chrome shackles, steering arms, gas tank, etc. But I am sending the poly spring liner back. I bought some for the front and rear spring, and the quality of theirs is really crap. The lip that would be on the outside of the spring,(which will show) is all wrinkled and warped. If I install it, this will show up very badly against the springs, so I can't use it.

I am considering just ordering a Posies spring for the front, like I should have done in the beginning. I may try to find some better spring liner material from some other source for the rear spring. I have the same Model A rear spring in my '27, and used a really good spring liner on it that has held up for all these years. Trouble is, I ordered it about 18 years ago, so I forget where I got it. I'll have to check out Macs or some other such place.

Getting ready to head over to the shop. Plan is to putty in those last remaining flaws in the frame, and try to get it shot black asap. I also have to get the rear end prepped a little more, and shoot some primer on it and the rear spring. If all goes well, by Sunday night I want the frame and all suspension pieces to be painted. We'll see how that goes.


Don

I thought I was pretty close to being able to spray my frame with paint, but once I started putting spot putty on some of the little flaws, I found I needed to fill more than I thought. It's like everything else, you do one thing, and everything else looks bad, so you have to keep going.:( :(

I'm using a product called "Icing" that is a thinned down filler. I like it because you can apply it with your fingertip, and when dry it sands very easily. Of course, easily is a relative term.........it still takes some effort and time. I used a trick Brian mentioned, wrapping sandpaper around some small hose, and using it to radius the welds in. I didn't want to completely obscure the welds, just soften them some more.

Between his hose trick, and wrapping paper around things like mixing sticks, etc, I was able to sand smooth most of the spots I needed to take care of. There are still a few more to do tomorrow, but my finger tips are ready for a little rest after a day of sanding. :D I also scuffed the entire frame, because I used epoxy primer, and to get another coat of primer to stick I needed to do that.

Here are a couple of pictures of what I got done today. Most of the primer I sprayed last week is now on the garage floor as sanding dust. I also found out what probably happened to my primer that was kicking in the gun before it should have. The girl at the paint store told me if the catalyst gets air to it, and sits in the heat, it will do that, even after a couple of weeks. So I will put the next opened can into the fridge until I use it again.

Don

don if you want to start a new line of work you now can start to crack safe,s with them thin finger tips .we all way,s tape are finger tips when blocking out a big job